Tapering off of opiates

I have been reading these posts now for some time and see my own experiences in those conveyed by others. I am a 28 year old attorney and stared abusing hydrocodone 10mg on a daily basis about a year and 1/2 ago. About six months ago I moved up to oxys. At my worst, I would take over 800 mg of oxycontin per day. About two weeks ago, after two previous attempts to quit had failed, I decided that enough was enough. I tried to go from the oxys back to hydros, and then nothing. I started cold turkey detox from the hydros last Friday, March 3. I made it about three days and couldn't take anymore. I then tried to taper the remianing withdrawal using the weakest narcotic I could find, propoxyphene, and only yesterday ran out. I thought that I would be okay but today, my first day off of propoxyphene, I felt absolutlely miserable. I couldn't take it, so I found 20 5mg percocets. My question is this: I want more than anything in the world to use these to properly taper and minimalize withdrawal, but don't know how to best use what I've got. Any help would be absolutely appreciated and respected. I feel I've made it so far from where I was on the oxys to now and just need to make the final step.

To be honest, you cant do it yourself. Get on the internet and find an addiction specialist in your area. Get on suboxone and you should have no withdrawls. The thing is, you have to want to stop. Because theres no pill that will stop the mental cravings for you.
So till you have found a doc, try your best to taper off them at least a day before you see the doc. If you have withhdrawls when you see him, he'll give you some suboxone on the spot. If it works, this is the locator for suboxone in your area.

The withdraw from the pecocets is going to be less than if you try methadone or suboxone. But, if your not having much luck doing it on your own you should try suboxone (depending on how much opiates your taking a day, may need methadone). I tried to do the whole home-withdraw using less and less pills/mgs. and was unsuccessful. I have now been off pills, using prescribed methadone, and clean for 3wks. This is the first time in nearly a yr.and half. Oxy's are stronger than percocets. So going back to oxy's is regressing. Try a medical doctor, that way you can have your med. at home and not go to a clinic daily/weekly. If you need any info. on the clinic or the home withdraw let me know. I might be able to help you. Best of luck!
---Day

no title

I am also a professional and was on massive amounts of opiates for a decade. About 3,500 mgs of pills and 30 cc's booting Hydromorphin and Dialaudid. In pills I was on Methadone (Waffers), Avinsa (Morphine), Demerol, Oxycodone, Hydrocodone and Propoxyphene and Fentanyl lollipops and patches. Now I have been clean for 6 months and I am in perfect health. Died three times from overdoses. Before I went into detox (2nd time in 2 years) a little over 6 months ago I was given 2 weeks to live. My whole system was shutting down. Just a little background. For more details look up my thread and replies.

Now sometimes individuals give misinformation accidently. First of all, Percocet and Oxycontin have the same active synthetic opiate - Oxycodone. The difference is that Oxycontin is time released and percocet contains acetomenophen. To address your tappering method. It seems that it was working. But you ran out of your darvacet or darvon whichever one you were using. So you took a step backwards. One point the others made is that you really want to "want" be off the drugs. Mentally, it is harder. Eventhough I went through hell I still crave opiates daily. That is why I have built a great support sytem around me. Family, girlfriend, group, counselor, family doc, pshchiatrist. It is hard to do this thing isolated. You were almost there. You have to go through the fire to be cleansed. Forget about suboxone and methadone. Some people need to go this route, but from what you shared you were able to tapper down to a class 4 opiate. Look, just bite the bullet. 5 to 10 days of suffering is worth getting your life back. It is hell, but there is a world waiting for you. Go to your doc and explain what you are doing. Tapper down again and get some outside support. Use advil/aleve for body aches, immodium, phenergan for nausea, plenty of water with electrolytes, if you can eat apples (pectin is great of stomach cramping) and if your doc feels it's prudent a short use of benzos for the anxiety and to help you sleep. You were right there! Like I said everyone wants to turn to suboxone and methadone. These are strong opiates and work for individuals who usually cannot stop. Or for those tappering down from long time use of heavy duty opiates. It just seems to me that people are not willing to go through the pain. It will probably be the worse experience of your life, but you have lose your life to gain it. I'm not judging anyone. Most likely I was the bigget junkie on this forum. And I have the scars to prove it. I blew out all my veins. Almost destroyed my liver, kidneys, heart, and other systems and organs. Miraculously, I am now in perfect health after being clean six months. Blood work shows that I am in the shape of a marathon runner. All my organs healed and are working optimally. I feel awesome. But I had to go through hell to get here. Withdrawals lasted months for me. Almost died. You should be done with the worse after 7 days. Just think a little over six months ago I was on my death bed. At 41 years young I am living again after being asleep for oh so long. Girlfriend in her twenties (she's having a hard time keeping up with me if you know what I mean). I went from a bloated 228lbs to a lean 190lbs. Actually, I was down to 170lbs at my worst point in my detox. I went from a size 40,41 waist to a 30 waist. Look up my other replies to see how far I have come. You can beat this thing. For me God was my center. He gave me strength when I had none. Life is beautiful. Carpe Diem. God Bless.

thanks vduda

thanks i really appreciate it it feels soo good to be clean and sober after doing pain killers for 6 yrs straight there soo much more too life after living your life in a drug induced fog thanks everybody on here and good luck on getting clean too you all god bless love all of you

I was up to a 900mg habit per day.......Subutex killed the withdrawals within 20 min......plus, its easy to stop taking Subutex

here is more info:

Currently, however, a remarkable new treatment is available as a result of the Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000. The medication Subutex has been approved for the office-based treatment of Opiate Dependence. Before this treatment, detoxification was generally conducted in a hospital setting. Subutex (generic name: buprenorphine) is actually a Partial Opiate Receptor Agonist, that is, it is a key that unlocks the same brain circuits that an addictive opiate such as hydrocodone would, but only partially. It is able to mimic the effect of more addictive opiates just enough to shut down cravings and eliminate withdrawal symptoms. Yet, it does not reinforce its own use like opiates, it does not have the "Lay's potato chip effect,” where the more a thing is used, the more it is wanted.

While other opiates are difficult to taper off, Subutex can be gradually reduced with ease. This new medication has revolutionized the treatment of opiate dependence.

Do you research and speak to people. There are better ways. Slowly taper down 20mg approx per month and exercise, herbs, teas, massage, etc... there are so many other ways to do it.

If you choose the harder stuff aforementioned then I take back the "shame on you ".. statement , its just that so many of these young and inexperienced docs are mis-treating people with legitimate chronic pain , in the case of pure abuse, perhaps this route is best... but I still am against them.

Mild to moderate symmetric disc bulging L3-L4 and L4-L5.
Mild to moderate left facet joint osteoarthritis L3-L4. Thoracolumbar rotoscoliosis.
And some more. Not fun. not one bit. At all. I am always hurting.

I do not advocate illicit drug use and understand why so many people who are in pain do bad things, unless you have real chronic pain no matter what or how much you read up on pain the ones with real pain will truly understand why we say what we say and do what we do & resort to the things we do. We have to.

Walk a mile in my shoe and wince in pain, feel your sweaty shirt, forehead moist, grunt, smile and then move on. Life could be worse.

Do you research and speak to people. There are better ways. Slowly taper down 20mg approx per month and exercise, herbs, teas, massage, etc... there are so many other ways to do it.

If you choose the harder stuff aforementioned then I take back the "shame on you ".. statement , its just that so many of these young and inexperienced docs are mis-treating people with legitimate chronic pain , in the case of pure abuse, perhaps this route is best... but I still am against them.

Shame on you to judge anyone on here! There is a huge difference between taper as a detox and maintenance! Buperenorphine can be a life and agony saver for many people when and most importantly if used for ONLY a short period of time from a few days to a cpl weeks. Yes it's different if people stay on them forever, but for some that's the best they are able to do and if that stops them from putting a needle in there arm and allows them to live a normal life that's great. Subs are best used for a short detox plan though and if done correctly u will avoid getting hooked on those too. Research it and you will find it works wonders for people when used this way, it's also smart to follow that up with some type of ongoing care or therapy plan...

No matter how you go about it you are going to have to finally go cold turkey and suffer. Tapering works only if you have someone who you trust to dole out your medication. Imodium is an excellent medication for opioid detox. loperamide. 10-20 mg every 4-6 hours for at least 5 days and then slowly tapering down to 2 mg twice daily (no real harm can come from long term use of low dose. In any case, within 4-6 days the most severe withdrawal symptoms will be over (any residual diarrhea can be easily treated with loperamide (imodium). Be sure to drink lots of pure water and quality fruit juice and also take antioxidants (Vit C, B-complex, Vit E, Beta-Carotene, Co-Enzyme Q10, acetyl-l-cysteine etc.) You may need clemastine (Tavist). Chlorpheniramine is a good antihistamine for eyes and nose. Insomnia if you are uable to get something from your Dr. benedryl can help. Exercise is a must. Warm baths for the bodyaches or preferably a sauna. No easy way out just know once through you are through. Might want to look and see why you are self medicating. Good luck, I too have been searching for these answers and thought what I found might help. Lots of good information on the internet just keep looking if this isn't for you....

I have been using opiates for many years now but was mainly using dilaudid. I tried many ways to wean off of them with no success but the best method I found was to drop one pill every two days. I was taking eight 8 Mg a day and this is how I tapered down.
Day 1 - 2:
8 am- Take 2
Noon- Take 2
4 pm- Take 2
Bed- Take 2

i read your story and could relate to it slightly i abused about 40mg oxycontin snorted daily for a solid year and quit coldturkey i was terified before and had to go to work doing a pyysical job. the forst 1-5 i had xanax to sleep and just as i thought it was over i had a few bad days. but its been a solid three weeks now and im starting to feel normal again. the pain was worth it as i feel like a new person, i ried to wean off many times but it just prolongs your pain. to everyone out there it does get better and you will feel the biggest natural high and feel proud of your self.